Germany has recorded a first case of African swine fever (ASF), a worrying signal in a country where pig farming and trade are highly developed, the Minister of Agriculture announced Thursday (September 10th).
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The swine fever virus was detected on the carcass of a wild boar found near the border with Poland, in the Brandenburg region, which surrounds Berlin.
“
Unfortunately, the suspicions have been confirmed
” after analyzes carried out by the Federal Friedrich-Loeffler laboratory, which specializes in this type of virus, said Julia Klöckner at a press conference.
This virus, like the consumption of infected meat, is "
not dangerous for humans
", recalled the Minister.
This first confirmed case is nonetheless bad news for German breeders.
It could jeopardize pork exports abroad, in particular to Asia.
The virus, which causes fatal hemorrhages in most cases for infected animals, has been detected for several months in wild boars in Poland.
Since 2014, the virus has spread to eastern countries
Germany had even erected an electrified fence over 100 kilometers across the border to prevent infected animals from entering Germany.
Drastic measures have also been taken in recent months in Germany, such as the use of sniffer dogs trained to find dead boars or even drones.
The discovery of this infected carcass in Brandenburg should lead to a ban for farms in this region to export their pigs.
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Since 2014, the virus has spread to eastern countries (Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania), wreaking havoc on pig populations.
Slaughtering contaminated livestock is the only way to prevent the spread of the epizootic, a nightmare for German farmers.
Producing nearly 5 million tonnes of this meat each year, half of which is destined for the foreign market, Germany is the leading European exporter of pigs.
Germany has so far benefited economically from the swine fever which has ravaged since mid-2018 in China, where officially more than a million pigs had to be slaughtered.
This popular meat there has seen its price skyrocket, and the country is expected to more than double its imports in 2019.